cooking up a recipe for organization!

If any of you have ever made a meal from scratch, you know that it requires a series of steps. You’ve come to accept that making a meal (even if it is from the freezer) requires a series of steps…and no one feels defeated by these steps. First you must decide what to make, then you pull out the cookbook, make a list of ingredients, shop for your ingredients, and step-by-step you make your meal.

Similarly, all organizing projects are made up of a series of steps. Most of the time, you won't be able to pull an organizing project out of the freezer so you will have to follow a recipe to enable you to achieve your results. Recognize that while you may not be able to “do the project” right now, you can do steps that move you forward towards the end result of an organized space. And this feels much, much better.

So, let’s put this into action.

1. Select a project. Any project will do…but the key is to pick just one project and forget about all the others. Give yourself permission to focus your time and attention on the one project you choose. Think of it this way: There’s no sense thinking about tomorrow night’s chicken while you’re cooking today’s chili. Right? So why think about the basement while you’re organizing your kitchen. The basement will be there when the kitchen is done.

2. Break Your Project Into Small Sub-Projects. Let’s go back to the example of preparing a meal. The sub-projects for making your meal are to decide what you want to cook, make a list of ingredients, shop for the ingredients, and finally, step-by-step prepare your meal. Apply this same thinking to organizing. Let’s say the project you selected in step one is your kitchen. This project could consist of sub-projects such as organize the pantry, drawers, cupboards, refrigerator, freezer, and so on. Remember those overwhelmed feelings we were talking about in the beginning? If you focus solely on your refrigerator this seems very doable and not so overwhelming. Wouldn’t you agree?

3. Select a sub-project and get started. Just as you selected your first project, now it’s time to select a sub-project. Once you have your sub-project, think about the steps required to move you forward. Keep in mind that it isn’t necessary to figure out every single step of the project before you start and you don’t need to go into great detail with the individual steps. Trying to do this just makes you feel even more overwhelmed.

Let’s go back to our dinner example. When you decide what you are going to have for dinner, you don’t need to decide which brand of ingredients to use at that time. Instead, you add the general ingredients to your shopping list. The decision about the specific brand can be made while you’re at the grocery store and have more information available to you. For example, is your favorite brand in stock? Do you have a coupon for another brand? Are there any tasty-looking ingredients on sale? All of these factors weigh-in on which ingredients you put in your cart…and ultimately into your dinner.

The same holds true with an organizing project. You don’t have to have every single detail worked out before you start organizing. The details, such as which container you’ll use to organize your spices, for example, become clearer as you move through the organizing process. The important thing is to think in terms of steps…and then get busy taking one of them!

So…I have one final question for you. What action are you going to take as a result of reading this article? Are you going to identify one step that will move you forward on your quest for a more organized home and life? Now is the best time to get started!

For more organizing information, visit my website: www.andreadekker.com